I’ll be honest, I drink A LOT of coffee. On average, I would say about three Dunkin small caramel iced coffees with cream and sugar a week. Just thinking about coffee makes me want to stop typing and go take a trip to Dunkin. Recently I began thinking: is coffee addictive? I know many people who have to have a cup of coffee in order to make it through their day. I looked further into this.
One study I came across was led by Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The researchers analyzed 120,000 regular coffee drinkers and discovered that people who drink a lot of coffee may have their genes to blame. Two of these gene variations were identified near genes BDNF and SLC6A4. Both of these are known to play a role in the rewarding effects of caffeine. People who drink coffee regularly have an increased likelihood of having high blood sugar levels and high cholesterol. So, some people may be inclined to drinking coffee based off the genes they were born with. They aren’t really addicted, they just need coffee to work and concentrate better. To watch a video that describes this study in more detail go to:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sciencetech/video-1126029/New-study-suggests-coffee-addiction-genes.html
This study seems pretty strong based off the large amount of people they analyzed. I can’t find anything wrong with it. Chance could always be a factor, however with the large amount of people utilized I highly doubt chance was the reason for the researchers’ findings in this study.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/10/07/heavy-coffee-drinker-blame-your-genes-study-suggests/nBhbc0oDeX6PD1Rqg8gXiO/story.html
I believe that it is very possible for individuals to become addicted to coffee and other caffeine rich drinks if they consume these said drinks on a consistent basis. Caffeine is a stimulant which by itself is highly addictive. For example, my mother drinks a ton of coffee and when she doesn’t have her daily fill, she doesn’t feel the same. It’s not the coffee affecting her though; it’s the caffeine. Often times if coffee isn’t readily available, another drink with caffeine will hold her over. So if you don’t want to become to dependent on coffee/caffeine, dry de-caff.
I don’t know whether I agree with you. I personally do not like coffee and I never will, but I have friends who are obsessed with it. They literally cannot go one day without having a cup whether it be to stay awake or just because they need it. I’ve met people who visibly shake when they’ve gone from mass consumption of coffee to quitting it cold turkey – they become completely different people. Since the results are uncertain I’d just advice everyone to be safer rather than sorry and stay away from coffee.
I’m a true believer that as humans, we can crave caffeine like we won’t survive without it. I went through a stage where I felt as if I constantly needed Pepsi products. But was it an addiction? I’m not entirely sure because the cravings were short-lived and my body didn’t have an action response to the detox. Dr. Griffths, who conducted a double-blind placebo trail with 11 self-proclaimed caffeine addicts, found that decreasing the subjects caffeine supply had side effects as inability to get up for work and inattentiveness. If you want to read more, here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/05/us/yes-people-are-right-caffeine-is-addictive.html. While the experiment seemed to support the hypothesis, there was no biological evidence that was linked to it.